Details

Date

1896

Author

Hankin

Contribution

Postulated a living entity (bacteriophage?) capable of blocking infectivity of cholera germs.

Reference

MacGregor

Notes

According to John Macgregor in New Scientist, 5 April, 2003, chemist E. H. Hankin found that water from River Ganges blocked 'the spread' of the cholera vibrio. This was not the case when the water was boiled, suggesting the presence of a living entity, and thus 'phages came to our attention in 1896.' Not clear from this acount how closely Hankin came to anticipating the well known dicsovery of phages by d'Herelle and by Twort early in the early 20th century.